


One Bad Night Of Many

by pine_storm_season



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Apocalypse, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Trauma, also titling things is hard lmao, also why is phil's character tag his name come on, theyre family your honor - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 22:07:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29582823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pine_storm_season/pseuds/pine_storm_season
Summary: phil has A Bad Time ft nightmares and a mildly awkward but trying-to-be-helpful techno
Relationships: Phil Watson & Technoblade - Relationship
Comments: 2
Kudos: 66





	One Bad Night Of Many

**Author's Note:**

> a little more about this au can be found here  
> https://chaos-king.tumblr.com/post/643583889078730752/apocalypse-au-time-warnings-mentions-of-human (idk how to make it link lol)
> 
> warnings: mentions of human experimentation, trauma reaction, vague recountings of a slightly gory dream, and i think that's it

Phil woke with a sound somewhere between a sob and a scream caught in his throat, and he jolted up in the pile of blankets, heart beating so hard and fast he could almost hear it.

“Techno,” he gasped, reaching out with a trembling hand to the snoring lump beside him. “Techno, Tech, wake up, wake up.”

He'd never been so grateful that Techno woke near-instantly.

“Phil?” he asked, concern etched into his face in the faint moonlight. He reached out, and Phil twitched; a movement somewhere between flinching back and a moment of readying to fight.

“Nightmare,” Phil rasped, curling into himself. “That I was—was back there.”

“Oh,” Techno said, and Phil knew he’d understood.

 _There_ wasn’t something they ever referred to by name. The ugly, short, building, stretching deep into the underground. The suffering in the very air of their floor.

There was a reason Phil slept stiff and silent as a log, no matter how bad his dreams were.

“Well, you're not there anymore,” Techno said lowly, steadily. “And we never fucking will be again.”

He reached out again, trembling hands held out into the cool air, and Techno mirrored him, taking Phil's hands in his own and holding on to them. His skin was cool and rough, and maybe to someone who didn't know him, he'd be terrifying. But to Phil, everything about him was just familiar and comforting.

“Tech, I think the dreams are getting worse,” he whispered.

Techno nodded slowly. “Okay,” he said. “Um. How much worse? Mine’ve stayed the same.”

Phil shuddered. “Less true to reality. More horrifying.”

“Oh,” Techno said. “That sounds…”

“I dreamed all my bones shattered,” Phil said suddenly. He gripped tighter to Techno’s hands. “I dreamed all my bones shattered trying to fly out of that place and they didn't care and they fucking laughed and—” A broken sob tore its way from Phil’s throat, and he was sure he must be hurting Techno with how tight he was holding onto his hands, but he couldn’t make himself let go. “—and I somehow made it to you and you didn't know who I was and then they told me I wasn’t supposed to be there and then they took me to testing and all my bones were still broken and they didn't notice or didn't care and—”

He was babbling, he realized distantly. He snapped his jaw shut with a distinct click as his teeth collided.

“Oh, Phil,” Techno murmured, and one of them must have leaned forward because suddenly Phil was curled up in Techno’s arms, tiny and frail and birdlike, and residual terror was still washing through his veins like ocean waves but there was a thin thread of safety there too.

“I hated it there, Techno,” Phil whimpered, his head pressed against Techno's chest. “It was hell, I hated it, I hated it, I hated it.”

“I know,” Techno said steadily. “I did too.”

Phil shuddered again. _“Fuck.”_

He tried and failed to banish the sound of his brittle bird-bones snapping, the pain that had wracked his entire body and didn't go away. Phil thought he could remember hearing once that you could only experience pain in dreams that you first experienced in reality.

He could believe it.

The spot beneath his shoulderblades ached whenever the circles Techno was rubbing on his back got too close, and he shivered.

“It’s a bad day,” Phil said, his voice tiny and frail but much steadier than before.

“What?” Techno asked, and he stilled. “Because the nightmare?”

He shook his head. “No, like—the spot where my wings would be. It's a bad day.” Techno made a noise of understanding and switched to just holding him.

Phil supposed he should be lucky that he hadn't ever had wings for them to fuck him up with; instead, there were just a few extra bones there and a dusting of pale grey-and-black feathers that started halfway down his back and curved around his ribs. One less thing for him to wake up screaming from, he supposed.

“We’re so fucked,” he whispered with a tiny little sob of a laugh. “We’re so horribly fucked from that place.”

“They're fucked worse,” Techno whispered back. “They're dead, and we’re not, so we've got that leg up on them.”

Phil let out a spluttering, hiccupping laugh. “Take that, dickheads.”

 _“Exactly,”_ Techno said. “They did this to us, and now they're dead. How’s that for karma?”

“If karma was real they would have died a thousand different deaths,” Phil said instantly. His voice was flat. “But them dying once is a start, I suppose.”

“Yeah,” Techno said, very softly.

They were both quiet for a moment.

“Whoever set off the start of the end of the world has my thanks,” Phil said quietly. “The fucking apocalypse was better than that hellhole.”

He laughed bitterly.

“Speaks to how fucked up it was there, huh.”

Phil rested his forehead against Techno’s chest and tried to breathe.

“Techno,” he said frailly.

“Phil,” Techno answered steadily.

“I hate this.”

“I know.”

He suddenly let his hands splay against Techno's chest and pushed away, twisting to stand and press his cheek against the cool glass of the window. Moonlight shone down bright and silver, and he kept his gaze away from the nearly-full moon.

“That place was so fucking awful, Tech, I don't know how you can stand it,” he said, and there was pain in his voice that he usually tried to make less obvious.

 _Why am I hurting more than you,_ he wanted to ask, and he knew that wasn't fair, knew that Techno woke panicky and trembling from nightmares too, but he was so _steady_ and Phil _wasn’t_. He shuddered and felt the feathers on his back fluff up defensively. _Why am I so angry when you’re calm and steady,_ he wanted to ask. _Why do I want them to suffer as much as they made me when you’re satisfied with the end they got, why am I so vicious and angry and scared when you’re so solid and steady and calm, why am I so cruel when I imagine the situations reversed?_

 _Why am I so fucked up,_ he wanted to ask.

A sob tore its way from his throat and his legs gave way beneath him, sending him tumbling down onto the hard wooden floor. His whole body shuddered and shook, and there was a painful lump in his throat and an ache behind his eyes that meant his body wanted to cry.

As much as he had been glad for the trait back in that place, now he wished he could have the release crying brought.

Techno knelt down next to him, slowly stretching out a hand. It landed on Phil's shoulder and his only reaction was a tiny, instinctive flinch; Techno reached out and gathered Phil into his arms, pulling him back towards their nest of blankets on a worn old mattress on the floor.

Phil shuddered and pressed his head against Techno’s chest, closing his eyes as though he could block out the pain.

**Author's Note:**

> a few extra things about this au:  
> \- techno is just as traumatized as phil, he just does his best not to show it (which isn't super good for him but eventually he'll learn not to do that)  
> \- phil is very slightly part bird and subsequently tiny. he's like,, 5'1 or something and techno is part boar and like 6'5 and built like a tank skdhdjdhfjs  
> \- phil is specifically part gyrfalcon; look them up they're really pretty  
> \- they're like seventeen and escaped from this shady off-government place, if you didn't go look at the tumblr post


End file.
